The ‘969’ group, which he leads, is responsible for the violence that erupted last month between his followers and the Muslim community; that led to 43 deaths in Meiktila town.

Last Thursday hundreds of the campaign supporters rode motorbikes whilst brandishing metal rods and rioted in a town north east of Myanmar to burn business premises owned by Muslim community, the most recent violence.

The incident in the town of Lashio took place a day after the followers of the extremist monk had burnt mosques and a Muslim orphanage.

Wirathu, the monk who hates Islam, was jailed in 2003 for inciting violence against Muslims in the country; but was released last year as part of the prisoner pardon programme. He admitted that he was in Meiktila last month whilst the Buddhists were rioting.

He urged Buddhists from all over Myanmar to boycott Muslim-owned busineses and distributed the ‘969’ stickers as a symbol of Buddha’s teaching.

The monk, as with most Buddhists are seen as worried about the successes of the Muslim community in Myanmar.

“They (Muslim community) are good in businesses. They control the transportation and construction industry. Now they are also getting involved in politics. If they succeed, we will end up like Afghanistan or Indonesia” says Wirathu.

Myanmar is a Buddhist country, but 9% of the 60 million perople are Muslims.

Last month a video recording showed a policeman standing still whilst watching a member of the ‘969’ squad burning a Muslim man.